


Sleep in Peace

by only_more_love



Series: 2019 Tony Stark Bingo, Round 2 [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 1872, Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds
Genre: 1872 (Marvel), Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Hurt Steve Rogers, M/M, Not A Fix-It, POV Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 09:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18091484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/only_more_love/pseuds/only_more_love
Summary: Sheriff Rogers' final thoughts in 1872.Written for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square R4: Voice.





	Sleep in Peace

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read the 1872 comics and would like to do so, here are a couple of links for you. Go here if you have a Marvel Unlimited subscription: https://www.marvel.com/comics/series/19501/1872_2015 You can also read here: https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/1872/Issue-1?id=87373
> 
> This isn't a fix-it, so if that's what you're looking for, get out while you still can.
> 
> I read the 1872 comics recently and was horrified by Steve's death—and the fact that he was still alive when Fisk tossed him to the hogs. What a horrific end for Sheriff Rogers. I wanted to write a glimpse into Steve's mind during the time between when he was shot and when he died, so that's what I did.

There’s a hole in his chest where lead and fire plowed through.  
  
_So this is what it’s like to live in a free land_ , Steve thinks. This is what he gets for turning his back on Bullseye like a fool.

“Nobody but you believed in that star on your chest,” Bullseye says, a smile clawing through his hateful voice and burrowing under Steve’s skin, and Steve wants to deny it, wants to shove the words back in his mouth and make him choke on them the way Steve’s choking on blood and agony.  

 _You’re wrong_ , Steve thinks. _Shut your mouth. Don’t talk about things you don’t understand._

Steve inhales a shallow, gasping breath and cringes at the awful rattle in it. It takes everything he has to answer Bullseye, to speak past the wildfire raging through his chest and incinerating everything in its righteous wake.

But he’s always been a stubborn sonofabitch.

“To...h-hell with you.” Getting out only that handful of words exhausts the last of his strength, and he sways on his knees like he’s being buffeted by a gale. _Stay up, Sheriff,_ he thinks, and even through the fog swirling through his mind, he realizes the voice isn’t his own. The voice is gravel rough but whiskey warm, slurred with drink, but lacking its usual gently mocking edge, and set against the heat and clanging hammers of a smithy.  
  
Steve tries to listen and obey, he does, because he desperately wants to die upright, if not on his feet. But his weak body crumples despite his attempts to marshal his will, sending him sprawling face down in the dirt. Is this the end that’s written for him, then? If it is, then so be it; he’ll do his utmost to meet it with what little grace he has left.

Cold creeps through his limbs, his body trembling with it, but the pain is already receding. Shouting envelops him, maybe, but he can’t be certain if the noise is outside him or just in his head, and what does it really matter, anyway? Everything feels comfortably distant.

He comes back, rudely, into his body when he feels himself being lifted. The movement forces a moan from his parched mouth. For an endless moment, his eyes slit open, and he spies his star gleaming in the blood-soaked earth. That star represents law and order triumphing over savagery and chaos, he remembers telling someone. Though he wants to pick it up and clean it off, his hands won’t work, no matter how loudly he yells at them to move, please move. So his eyes fall shut again, and he lets himself slump, boneless.

There’s a certain relief in simply surrendering. Voices rise around him in a filmy curtain of song he wishes he could reach out and touch. No, one voice, familiar and tinted rose with grief. (Why is he always so sad? Steve would ask him if he could.) A voice that belongs to someone he knows. He can’t remember his name—it’s there, floating on his mind’s edge, just out of his grasp—but Steve knows how he makes him feel—stark with longing and a raw yearning to fold him in his arms and tell him that he’s safe. That Steve will _keep_ him safe.  

Steve hits the ground hard. The impact jars him; it _hurts_. But then the man sings again, and this time Steve makes out the words: “The summer's gone, and all the roses falling.” The melody is a warm, calloused hand that strokes Steve’s cheek. “It's you, it's you must go, and I must bide.”

As snuffling and snorting sounds surround him, Steve’s tired eyes stay closed, a smile inside him since his lips won’t move, and he imagines singing these words back to the man with the sad voice and even sadder eyes: “And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be. For you will come and tell me that you love me. And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.”

_Until you come to me._

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> The song lyrics are from "Danny Boy," which Tony sings to Steve in the 1872 comics. It's an old and famous ballad set to an Irish melody.
> 
> Thanks for reading. :) Comments and kudos are always appreciated. If you've enjoyed this story, please let me know. All comments are treasured, and I do respond to all of them, though it sometimes takes me a while.
> 
> Other places you can find me: [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/onlymorelove), [Tumblr](https://onlymorelove.tumblr.com), [Dreamwidth](https://only-more-love.dreamwidth.org/), and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/onlymorelove). I'm on Discord as onlymorelove#8488; you can often find me posting garbage on various Marvel Discord servers.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Sleep in Peace](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18121421) by [only_more_podfucs (only_more_love)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/only_more_love/pseuds/only_more_podfucs)




End file.
